


Love x Blessing x Curse (Rewritten)

by yui_minatsuki



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Genderbending, fem!Yuuki Judai
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-24
Updated: 2017-01-02
Packaged: 2018-04-05 22:37:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 14,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4197639
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yui_minatsuki/pseuds/yui_minatsuki
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Manjoume Jun <em> married </em>  Fem!Yuuki Judai to save the world.  Cliche and sounds stupid indeed, right? That's why they 'tried' to cancel it and still save the world. But Manjoume didn't really know how deep a marriage bond could be....and how his wife truly was.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Aimee's Blessing

**Author's Note:**

> It’s a fanfiction I started to write long time ago. But then I was unable to continue as I started to work in a secluded island with near-hell living condition. When I finally got back to my hometown I was unable to access fanfiction.net (the site was banned). I kept writing while waiting for the ban to be lifted, but then my computer crashed and the data of the story was LOST. 
> 
> Those chapters that I’ve chosen each and every word carefully…those chapters --that only need a few more to reach finale-- that I’ve checked the grammar and possible plot hole over and over again as English is a foreign language in my country is GONE just like that. 
> 
> It’s just so painful that I stopped writing after that.
> 
> But then I found another fanfiction site and was able to read fanfiction again. Reading those stories that the fanfiction writers have poured their mind and souls to write is just…enlightening. I want to write again. I want to write again!
> 
> So here I am standing on this battlefield once again. 
> 
> Disclaimer: This story is just a fanfiction of Yu Gi Oh GX written by a delusional fangirl that is me. I don’t own Yu Gi Oh GX.
> 
>  
> 
> I can’t post this back to fanfiction.net as I have this fear of suddenly unable to access that site again. And yeah, that site is no longer banned but I’m still unable to access it easily –don’t know why the browser kept loading forever – for now.
> 
> Juudai Yuki is a girl here. 
> 
> Main pairing is Juudai Yuki x Manjoume Jun
> 
> I take the character characterization from the YuGiOh GX manga.
> 
> Don’t like don’t read. 
> 
> You’ve been warned.

\- 07.00 a.m –

\- Aimee’s church – 

\- The Land of Rain –

Asuka was walking through the row and row of seats. Fubuki, her brother, was beside her. She couldn’t believe that this day had finally come: the day when she wore a dreamy white wedding dress.

No. Don’t be mistaken. It’s not a happy day at all.

For this marriage thing was arranged in a most ridiculous way possible: dueling rank.

The reason?

This country was called ‘The Land of Rain’. According to history that’s because soft, pouring rain falls everyday throughout the year. But it’s been 10 years since the last rain fell. This horrifying drought – according to what commoners believe – was due to the curse of the Black Moon. 

16 years ago, on August 31st, the Moon which was usually bright and calming suddenly turned darker and darker. It is now completely blackened and radiating black mist. Since then the rain has stopped falling in The Land of Rain. 

The country which suffers its ‘curse’ isn’t just that one, but all around the world. The Land of Snow now had to face harsh winter throughout the year. The Greenland’s Wood now was filled with stray monsters. Hot merciless wind blew in The Skyscraper Country. And many more.

Until three days ago the nun of the Aimee’s church got a revelation through her dream that the newlywed of The Land of Rain with The Bracelet of Love will end the curse. 

Goddess Aimee only blesses the couple who's really a soul mate. It's shown by her gift called the Bracelet of Love. Here the procession: soon after the blessed couple stand in front of the altar, two identical bracelets will appear there. It is said that those bracelets bring miracles to the bearers: a gift from Aimee for their pure love.

The world needed the saviors as soon as possible …so…

The people of the country had decided to sort the legal-to-marry youth in the country and held the wedding ceremony in that church every given day—and for each day the couple was chosen by the country’s council. The Council had chosen A rank duelist boy and girl to be married—by lottery. As ridiculous it might seem, none could argue with it since they indeed desperately needed the saviors A.S.A.P: A talk over the feelings of the duelist youth was taken as a mere waste of time: if they’re blessed, they’re the saviors. If they’re not blessed, they could easily divorce right then and there. Marriage and divorce were just easy-thing. 

Desperate people were capable of anything.

So, Asuka Tenjoin, hardly trying to hold back her tears, walked to the altar where Manjoume Jun, another unlucky A-rank duelist, was standing there waiting for her. It’s as if the words what-the-heck-is-this-total-bullshit were written all over their sullen face. Asuka didn’t want to marry Manjoume as she secretly loved someone else. But Manjoume knew exactly that, yes, this country needed the saviors, and he’s willing to do anything that was needed for his country.

Walking through the crowded seats, Asuka had a wild hope that some stray dragon would suddenly destroy the church's roof and end this foolish act. _'Great,'_ She thought, _‘Now I just sound like Juudai, imagining a kid-like fantasy show like that. Where is she anyway—at the time like this?'_

Asuka scanned the row of people, and she saw Sho Marufuji, Juudai Yuki’s best friend. But the brown hair girl called Juudai isn’t there. And Sho looks worried. Asuka starts to think that there’s something bad happens to Juudai. That brown hair girl likes to do simple-but unthinkable things…

Suddenly, astonishing everyone, a blast of fire destroyed the roof of the church. Well, not all the roof was broken, but there's a newly-made hole which allowed a brunette with duel disk in her left hand jumps, and lands on the aisle. A fire-type materialized duel monster, Burstinatrix is guarding her.

"Juudai!" Asuka screamed, half happy of her sympathy and half angry at the chocolate-eyes girl for causing such a mess. Interrupting arranged marriage in the name of saving the world, Juudai Yuki had the highest chance to be hated by the whole country. 

But it seemed like she didn’t care.

" Manjoume!" Juudai pointed her index finger to the spiky hair boy, “I challenge you to a duel!”

Manjoume looked extremely pissed, as by destroying this marriage by challenging him into a duel like this has made him looked like fellow idiot too. _‘Why should you destroy the roof in such an-anime-like manner?’_ He thought. 

"Juudai, I know you're stupid, but I wish you aren't stupid enough to continue this childish act! Asuka is my bride today and it's useless for you to take her away from me." Manjoume grabbed his duel disk from one of his servant, put Blood Sucker monster card on its slot and materialized that monster. "Scram or I'll kick you out!" _‘Juudai, stop hindering this marriage or the town people will hate you.’_ Manjoume screamed inside his mind.

"No! You shouldn't force Asuka to marry you!" Juudai walked to the altar, "Manjoume, I challenge you to a duel! Right here right now!” Juudai said stubbornly. “If I win, You will not marry Asuka today. If I lose, well that's not going to happen, so LET'S DUEL!"

The town people started to move in anger, but they did not dare to come closer as Burstinatrix was guarding juudai. "How dare you interrupt a holy marriage in front of the Goddess Aimee!" one of the guests screamed to Juudai.

Speaking about the Goddess…two identical black bracelets suddenly appeared on the altar. They looked like a pair of shackle—minus the connecting chains. They were full with intrigued symbols engraved on it. They were the Bracelets of Love.

" …??!!? I and Asuka are blessed! We are the saviors!" Manjoume shoved Juudai away then grabbed those bracelets. He locked one of the bracelets on his left hand, above his duel disk. Now he ran and aimed for Asuka's hand.

Juudai stood up quickly and tackled him to the floor. Then, she grabbed Asuka’s hand to run away, but Fubuki hindered their way. The big brother said, "Juudai, it's enough! Don’t you want the world to be saved?"

"No! We should not do this! Marriage isn’t just a child play. What about Asuka and Manjoume’s feeling? Must we sacrifice them for an unclear foreboding about this world?" Juudai stated stubbornly. The crowd’s getting angrier. 

Manjoume summoned Light and Darkness Dragon and commands it to catch Juudai. People inside the church screamed and ran into the corner as that big dragon moves its body. Burstinatrix jumped to protect Juudai. Before those two monster fight, Fubuki ran between them, "Stop it! Don't you know that it'll be count as stray duel? It's prohibited! Do you want your masters to go to jail?"

"I don't need a stray duel! I'm able to defeat Manjoume in (legal) duel!" Juudai screamed.

"I don't need both!" suddenly Manjoume was right beside Juudai and he punched her right cheek. He punched her hard since if he didn’t do so the people would do that to her. Lucky for him, he never thought of Juudai as a girl. For him, the brunette wasn't a girl since she was so boyish and flat. Besides, he was so irritated that he never won a duel against Juudai. That girl landed hardly on the floor meters away.

"Juudai!" Asuka wanted to help Juudai, but Manjoume grasped her right hand, trying to clasp the other bracelet on her wrist. He was astonished that the bracelet refused to be locked. Taking this chance, Asuka kicked him away. (She’s absolutely angry that Juudai was punched that hard by Manjoume) The spiky black hair boy was thrown and then landed on Juudai, who was trying to get up.

The two ended up in this position: Manjoume was on top of Juudai, blushing heavily. Juudai ,unknowing of what had hit her hard, caressed her chest which was hit the first.

Something weighted her right hand.

Juudai looked at her wrist. There's a black bracelet with intrigued carving LOCKED there.

"NOOOOO!" Asuka screamed furiously, kicking Manjoume once again, throwing him far away from Juudai. The brunette just blinked her eyes in confusion. 

"No! No! Juudai, I'm so sorry!" the crying blond girl hugged her tightly.

"What?" Juudai asked innocently, "Asuka, let me go, it hurts…"

"The bracelet…" all of the guests murmured in awe. "…you're blessed…"

"Blessed for what?" Juudai always slept on every lesson—she only cared about duel, so it's normal for her not to understand this country's culture. 

"Don't you learn slacker?" Manjoume scolded her in frustration, "we are…we are…" he's unable to continue his sentence. Besides, the male guests of the church now all started to hug him. Juudai tried to stand up and asks him the continuation, but it's difficult since the female guests now were trying to hug her.

"Congratulations!"

"Oh…finally a blessed couple!"

"I'm happy for you…"

"Couple? Couple…what?" Juudai stuttered in frustration, "Asuka, have I failed? Have you married him?" Juudai confusion was doubled since the blonde girl shook her head tearfully in instant.

"I can't believe I marry a dork!" Manjoume—finally able to release himself—grabbed Juudai's back collar and took her away from the crowd.

The blood Sucker and burstinatrix were guarding them to have a free space in the corner. Juudai just stayed quiet while Manjoume looked so red that it rivaled the red jacket that Juudai’s wearing now.

"You marry a dork? When? Who is it? How unlucky she is," Juudai innocently tried to start a conversation, "and…what is this bracelet anyway? Why are you using it too?”

Manjoume was so angry, so irritated, so humiliated, but he knew he has to calm himself or else he would burst. He had to stay calm: great crisis can only be finished by a calm mind.

"Juudai…" he said, astonishingly calm.

"Hm? Yes? What?" Juudai replied all smiling and happy, because it looked like Manjoume wasn’t angry at her again. 

Manjoume took a deep breath, and said, "Juudai, this bracelet is the sign of Aimee's blessing."

"Aimee?"

"Goddess of Love, Aimee. She blesses us."

"Hmmm…?" Juudai tilted her head and laughed sheepishly, "I'm sorry Manjoume, I don't understand what you mean. Would you mind to explain it more clearly to me?"

"Juudai…this bracelet…" Manjoume sighed, and then screamed, "IS THE SIGN THAT YOU ARE MY WIFE! WIFE! OH MY GOD! I CAN’T BELIEVE I END UP WITH AN IDIOT LIKE YOU TO SAVE THE WORLD! No, this must be a mistake! It’s impossible that we are the couple who’ll save the world! It’s impossible to be you!!!!"

"I'm WHAT?" Juudai felt her legs give up, "but how? I don't want to marry yet! I'm still young! Too young to die! No…" she stammered.

"You are not dead, you are marrying me!" Manjoume still screamed, even not as loud as before.

"But it's the same! Being married is equal to die! No freedom, nurturing kids, cleaning the house, no time for duel, NO WAY!" Juudai tried to pull off the bracelet, but even now the both of them try to do it, the bracelet didn't budge.

"You may not do that!" the fat middle aged women, Dorothy, separated both of them. (Burstinatrix and Blood Sucker didn't dare to hurt her)

"Why? I don't like it…" Juudai begged.

"Aimee has blessed you with this man. There's no force in this world that can separate both of you now. Legend has proved! History has proved! Aimee's blessing is real." Dorothy explainsed.

That explanation, Juudai could understand, but she didn’t want to accept it. She didn’t want to marry. So she said, "I don't want to die…I still want to duel! There must be a way to cancel it, right Manjoume?" Juudai pouted.

"This time you're right. This world is so wide! There must be some way out there!" Manjoume grabbed Juudai's hand, saying "come! I want to cancel this marriage as soon as possible."

Manjoume dragged Juudai steadily to the exit. But a pale blue hair boy, Sho Marufuji, hindered their way.

"Scram!" Manjoume screamed.

That boy ignoring him, "big sister, don't go with him…you have promised me that we will look for big brother after you’ve messed up this marriage."

Manjoume wanted to scold him, but Asuka spoke first, "Sho, do you know where your brother Ryo is? Tell me! Please…may I go with you?"

Fubuki came beside her, "do you finally find where he is? Is he alive? Is he alright?"

Juudai released her arm from Manjoume, "don't worry, I'll keep my promise. Let's look for Ryo! This marriage canceling can wait, right Manjoume?"

"Manjoume-san, da! (it's Manjoume-san!) How many times I should remind you and NO! This marriage canceling CANNOT wait!" Manjoume held Juudai's hand and dragged her away.

"Anniki…" Sho tried to reach Juudai.

"Sho…" Juudai tried to reach Sho’s hand. The world between them looked like it moved in slow motion.

"NO MORE DRAMAS!" Manjoume stood between them.

"But, Manjoume, you should not be this cruel! Ryo is also your friend!” Juudai said.

"Are you saying that you don't mind to be married?" Manjoume said.

"Well, why don't we looking for its canceling while looking for Ryo?" Juudai smiled, "I know you want to look for Ryo too. Ryo is still alive. We finally find some clue! This morning we heard that on the Land of Frozen Fire, people saw the spirit of Cyber Dragon. That monster is his favorite. If it showed up there, maybe Ryo was also there."

Manjoume thought for a while, as usual, Juudai knew him well. "I understand. Well, maybe in that country we can find some way to destroy this." He pointed at his bracelet.

"Hmf, do as you wish, but Aimee's blessing can never be destroyed" one of the guest said.

“They’re the blessed couple. I wish they can stop the curse of the Black Moon…why are they arguing like this?”

“…. perhaps it’s one of the courses to be taken to end the curse?”

“I don’t know, but if we believe in Aimee, we shall put our trust in them.”

"You should be happy you are blessed. If you deny it, you will get cursed." Another guest mumbled.

"Hey, if we get cursed, then we just need to over it. It's easy." Manjoume replied.

"Yeah." Juudai nodded and smiled, secretly touching her hidden blackened stomach, _'besides, living a cursed life is not that bad.'_

In the end, Juudai Yuki, Manjoume Jun, Sho Marufuji, Fubuki and Asuka Tenjouin set their journey to the Land of Frozen Fire.

****

to be continued...

****

 

\--------- I've written until chapter 6 but uploading things will take some time. I'm still not used to uploading things in AO3 

and I dearly hope Archive of Our Own won't be banned in my country for ever. 

thank you for reading and being patient with me and.....

I'm so sorry it took a long time for me to re-understand how fun writing fanfiction is...............


	2. Something that's Unspoken

"Cool…." Juudai stared in awe the scenery in front of her: an avenue which was full of night light. Full color-animated advertising were everywhere and the lamps looked like it tended to defeat the stars. Juudai ran in excitement to look at the big card shop's display window.

"Yeah, this is sure a big city." Fubuki said. He looked at the white gothic Lolita dress that's displayed on 'Reborn'. "You know, Asuka, that gown suits you. Every man would surely turn their eyes on you."

"Just forget it." Asuka went away and stood beside Juudai, "Juudai, do you want to buy some cards?"

Fubuki heaved a big sigh, "this two ladies…they never regard their beauty. Come on, Manjoume, let's buy some gown to help their beauties show up."

Manjoume smirked, "I'm sure Asuka have, but I doubt Juudai."

"Manjoume-kun, I won't forgive you if you insult her!" Asuka scolded him, then she continued in a calmer tone, "Juudai, let's go to that shop! I will buy you some gowns."

"Nope. You not need to do that, Asuka. If you want to buy me something, just buy me some cards so that I can constantly defeat Manjoume in every duel." Juudai smiled widely.

"Juudai! I remind you! I almost win!" Manjoume scolded her, "if it's not for your unbelievable irritating luck at the very last turn I would have defeated you!"

"Let's go Asuka." Juudai chirped happily, ignoring Manjoume, pulling Asuka to enter the card shop.

"No! She's going this way!" Manjoume grabbed Asuka's hand, trying to pull her to enter 'Reborn'.

"Manjoume-kun! Release me!" Asuka scolded.

"No! I want to see you in that white dress! You must look so beautiful in that outfit! Unlike a certain flat chest who's better born to be a boy since she has no girlish-shape!" Manjoume refused to let go.

Asuka was going to throw another scolding, but she stopped as Juudai suddenly released her hand. "Juudai?"

"…"

"Juudai?" Asuka asked once again, trying to look at Juudai's eyes that were concealed by her bangs.

Suddenly that girl looked up and smiled _strangely_ , "Ah, just go then, Asuka, he prefers you more than me. I can go alone. Bye." With those words, she ran away, lost in the crowd.

"…I hate you!" Asuka yanked her hand away from Manjoume. "Look what've you done? She's…she is your _wife!_ Can't you understand her feeling?"

"Hey, it's an accidental marriage that both of us NOT wanted!" after saying that, Manjoume ran, "JUUDAI! WHERE ARE YOU GOING? COME BACK HERE, SLACKER!" he lost in the crowd.

"….big sister…she says she's gonna buy cards, but where is she going? The card shop is here. Big sister!" Sho was going to chase Juudai, but both Asuka and Fubuki held his hand. "Why?" Sho asked innocently.

"I think they both need to talk privately for now. Ah, how if we eat dinner while we wait for them?" Fubuki said calmly.

"… I hope they come back quickly. Big sister has skipped lunch because of dueling Manjoume. She could be pretty bad if she's hungry…" Sho whispered worriedly, "and she forgot her wallet on me".

Juudai ran as fast as she could. But she couldn’t take it much longer. First, she's hungry. Second, she's hungry. Third, she's tired and hungry. So she decided to take a sudden turn in the dark alley in front of her. Scanning that area, she found a big square dump.

"How perfect!" she whispered, opened its lid then jumped in.

"Auch!"

"Ah…I'm sorr—"

"Shhhh…" the brown hair girl who had been there closing the lid," careful, they can hear us." She whispered very softly.

Juudai wanted to ask much, but she stayed quiet as many heavy footsteps came closer to their hidden place. Fortunately they just were passing by.

Not so long after that, another foot step is heard, more lightly but it's accompanied with scream. "JUUDAI! WHERE ARE YOU? JUUDAI! JUUDAI!" fortunately he's just passing by.

Both of the hiding brown hairs sighed in relief.

"I'm glad they go away, I don't want to be caught by them!" the short brown hair girl said. She had the same color hair as Juudai, but different in model, and she wore summer hat. "By the way, why are you here? What are you running away from?" she asked Juudai.

"Em…that is…uh…" Juudai tried hard to put it into words, "because…he picked Asuka's hand…." Juudai looked ashamed, "well, I think now that I have run for a stupid reason. I shouldn't get angry. I….I don't like our marriage after all. It's going to be over…soon." She looked at her bracelet then smiled weakly, "and what about you? Why do you run away?"

"Me? I can't stand my parents, that's all!" she looked angry, "they never take care of me! They always work and work and work! They never play or even talk to me!"

"Woa…really? They are parents, right? Aren't they should play with their children? Why don't they?"

"Are you dumb? You ask a stupid question! I don't know what's wrong with me…they just…never talk to me…" a tear threaten to fall from her eyes.

"…really…never…as if they've died right when you were born?"

"No! Not like that…just…lately…"

"Hmm…it's good that they're not dead. You still can do something to make they care to you." Juudai smiled.

"Yeah. That's exactly what I do now. I run away and I would never show up until they themselves who look for me. Hey, what's the matter?" she asked Juudai who strangely looked down, hiding her face behind her bangs.

"Nothing…." Juudai looked up again, "good luck for your hide and seek then." She smiled and about to go, but the girl gripped her hand.

"Hey, how if we make this hide and seek more lively?" she purposed, "we exchange our clothes, that way the one who looking for us will face double difficulties."

"…that if he’s still looking for me. Maybe he will stop soon. I…doubt he want to find me. But I'll help your plan."

"Great!" she jumped out of the dump, "my name is Risa Clover, and you?"

"Juudai Yuki." She smiled, "let's do your plan then."

Manjoume sat on the bus stop even though he didn't want to take a bus. He just awfully tired. Juudai could run fast if she wanted to, hungry or not hungry.

"I should have put a leash with a tracker on her neck! That dork!" Manjoume hissed, made some people stared at him in dislike, "and she has skipped lunch…and she haven't eat at all…and her bag, wallet, plus PDA are on Sho…and she's easy to get lost! Arrggghhh!" he stood up and started to search, screaming Juudai's name again.

He stopped when he saw a girl with a red jacket that was the same as Juudai’s. At first he felt happy, but then he realized that she didn't wear bracelet, and her hair looked strange.

"You!" he grabbed that girl's back collar, "Why do you wear Juudai's clothes? Where is she?" he asked.

"Hey! Let me go!" Risa yanked his hand off, "so…it's you who is looking for Juudai. Poor boy, you can never find her now." She teased.

Manjoume was about to acold her, but he stopped as she said, "so you really care about her that much, huh? Then why don't you show it to her while she is around?"

Manjoume put his fist on his side, looking away. "I…do not care for her. You've been mistaken."

“Hm….” Risa pointed to the west, ""……that intersection, she goes to the left from there."

As she finished her sentences, Manjoume darted away to that direction, screaming Juudai's name again.

"'Do not care'….huh?" she walked away. Seeing that there's a boy with blue hair on the corner of the street, asking an old woman, Risa hid right before he looked at her direction.

 _'It's Johan, this town best duelist. Oh my God…my parents even hire up a duelist to find me! This is bad….'_ She thought. Then she saw that Johan went to Juudai's direction. _'Oh…but he goes that way. I bet he's told by that woman to go after the girl's description that fits me before. He can't find me. Never.'_ She smirked and ran faster to east.

Juudai quickly hid in the dump (again ^_^ ;; ) when heard her name was screamed by a familiar voice. She hid there well until that voice faded in the distance. Then she got out from that smelly place, sat, and hugged her knees beside that dump.

 _'…what have I done?'_ she smiled in her confusion, _'I'm totally hungry, and my other friends must be worried about me now.'_ She thought, didn't know that Fubuki was saying to Sho and Asuka that Juudai and Manjoume might be together in a happy heart-to-heart moment now. _'I…should not run in the first place…I shouldn't run. He doesn't want me. It's clear. I know that. I accept it. But….'_ She remembered when Manjoume held Asuka's hand—not only that time, but also countless previous time before. It's always Asuka. Always…

She knew she should not been hurt. That was Manjoume anyway. She could always shake it off before. She… _didn't_ love him in romantic terms, right? But her heart was really hurt right now—that she had thought of it over and over again. She buried her face in her knees and started sobbing quietly. Not long after that, she fell asleep.

But she slept not too long, as a hand shook her shoulder gently.

"Risa Clover? Is that you?" an unfamiliar voice asked Juudai. That girl raised her head half asleep, shook her head, then got back to sleep.

"Hey…since you're not Risa Clover, why are you wearing her dress?" that blue hair boy smiling, looked at the photo given to him: a stern girl wearing red with white lace dress and white summer hat. That's exactly what Juudai was wearing now—minus the dirt and bad smell and.... Juudai did looked sweet.

"Hey….wake up, would you? Please, I need your help to find this girl, her parents are really worried." That boy shook Juudai again softly, "would you help me please?"

"…then tell her parents that they should look for her by themselves… She would show herself if they do so, I'm sure." Juudai mumbled, half asleep, "…I've met her. She only craves for her parents' attention."

"Oh, thanks for the information." The blue hair boy opened his PDA, and sent an email to Risa's parents, "then, how about you? Don't you want to go home? Where's your home?"

"….definitely not here."

 _‘uh…what should I do…she looks like a lost girl…'_ The boy thought, observing the sleeping girl in front of him. Then he looks at the duel disk on her left hand. "Hey…you're a duelist too. Why do you end up in this Emerald town? This town banned all duelist magic except in the duel arena—the duelist of this town is an exception. So this is not so much fun city for outsider duelist."

"….I want to look for my friend…we have to go through this town to go to the Land of Frozen Fire…"

"'we'? So you didn't come here alone…where's your friends?"

"…..hungry…." Juudai whispered as a grumbling sound suddenly heard.

"Hm…Well, if you're hungry, let me treat you some burgers as the reward for your valuable information." The blue hair boy smiled.

"Really?" In instant Juudai woke up, eyes wide in awe.

"Really. By the way, my name is Johan. What is yours?" he asked, thinking _'Surely this girl is as cute as a lost puppy…'_

"Yuki Juudai!" she said happily.

While the two walk and chit chat to the burger restaurant, a spiky black hair boy spottef them then ran to them.

"JUUDAI! Where have you been? Fool!" Manjoume grabbed Juudai's hand and yanked it off from Johan's grip. "Let's go home!" he walked, pulling Juudai harshly with him.

"Wait. That young lady is going to have dinner with me. I shall thank her properly." Johan stated. Hearing herself called as 'lady' Juudai blushed.

"No! She goes with me! End of discussion!" without looking back, Manjoume dragged Juudai away with him.

"Hmm…ok then. See you later, Yuki-chan." Johan waved his hand, smiling.

"It's 'farewell'!" Manjoume exclaimed, feeling irritated.

Juudai glanced at Johan for the last time; she smiled and waved her hand. After that, she looked at the spiky hair boy in front of him, and then looked at the black bracelets on their joined hands.

 _'Manjoume…is it ok for me…to like you more than friend? Or…have I already liked you more than a friend?'_ she was so deep in thought that she stumbled a little.

"Becareful dork. Geez…can't you become more like Asuka—gentle, careful, and smart? At least….fight your carelessness!"

"…..I'm sorry, Manjoume." Juudai whispered sadly.

 

To be continued  
Thanks for reading ^_^


	3. Clues

"Manjoume, I'm hungry…" Juudai groaned.

"Fine! Fine! We'll eat! But we have to meet our friends first! They must be worried!"

000888000

~in the hotel~

"Oh, but we have eaten two hours ago." Fubuki said calmly after Manjoume asked them to go out for dinner.

"What? Why did you leave us?" Juudai asked, half conscious. She’s so hungry!

Asuka looked at Juudai's condition then turned to scold Manjoume, "Why…you're so irresponsible, Manjoume-kun! You should bring her to the restaurant immediately when you have found her!”

"…Actually he just dragged me away when we met near K.C burger…." Juudai said,"..where Johan wanted to treat me."

"What? Johan? Who is that…?" Sho asked.

"Um…he—"

"He's NO ONE!" Manjoume harshly said .

"…" Fubuki, Asuka, and Sho looked at each other and nodded their head as if agree to one thing.

"Let's go to that K.C burger! They exclaimed. _'We want to know what Johan is like. Maybe we'll meet him there!'_ they thinks.

~in K.C burger~

"Yay! Food!" Juudai happily smiled when she received her tray of food. Although she's a bit irritated that Manjoume chose to sit right beside Asuka, not beside her.

When everyone had been on ease that Juudai had been fed, Fubuki, Asuka, Sho, and Manjoume realized that Juudai wore pretty cloth which was full of laces.

"…." Fubuki and the other male were speechless. Although she’s a bit smelly, she looked undeniably cute.

"Eh…Juudai, you look so cute," Asuka cheerfully said ,"where did you get that gown? Was that..um…Johan who bought it for you?"

"Hmmm? No, I've exchanged my dress with Risa."

"Risa? Who is Risa?"

"She's a runaway girl whom Johan looked for…" Juudai put her burger and looked away," I wonder whether he has found Risa….Oh!" Juudai suddenly stood up. "Johan, is that you?"

Johan, who heard someone calling his name looked away from his burger and smiled widely when he spotted Juudai. "Oh, Yuki-chan." He grabbed his tray and moved to Juudai and friends' table.

He sat between Juudai and Sho. Manjoume immediately regretted that he chose to sit between Fubuki and Asuka.

"Yuki-chan, I never thought that we'll meet again." Johan said smiling to Juudai after glanced at Manjoume. Fubuki could see something burned in Manjoume's eyes.

"So do I." Juudai cutely smiled.

Fubuki could sense that Manjoume now was burnt really bad, not literally though.

"So, um…they are your friends whom travel with you?" Johan ignored Manjoume's angry stare.

"Yup. They are…Fubuki Tenjouin, Manjoume Jun, and Asuka Tenjouin." Juudai pointed at her friends on the opposite side of the table one by one. "…and the one beside you is Sho Marufuji."

"Hi there, I'm Johan Anderson, nice to meet you." Johan looked at Sho," so…you're Marufuji, as if in Ryo Marufuji? Are you his brother?"

"Yeah, I'm his brother," Sho sadly smiled, remembering his lost brother," I hope he's ok…."

"I see. You try to look for him. He's a great duelist, I wish I could duel him sometime." Johan said, then he came up with an idea, "hey, how if I go with you to find him? I've looked for many people before and I've found them all. I have connections in many towns too, I can help you."

"We DON’T need your help. So much for your excuse to get close to Juudai." Manjoume grumbled.

"Why are you so angry? Ah, and I'm not--".

"—As you can see!" Manjoume rose his fist, showing Johan his bracelet," that we are couple blessed by Aimee."

"But…I thought that you don't like that marriage and looking for a way to cancel it?" Sho said innocently.

If only Manjoume's glaring eyes could kill, Sho was definitely dead right now.

"Oh, so you don't like that marriage? Then…I might be able to help you finding a way to cancel it." Johan grinned, "I know some people who claimed they can do that."

"I'm still hungry." Juudai suddenly said, "I want to buy more burgers."

"Then, I'll treat you, Yuki-chan." Johan put his hand on Juudai's shoulder. “Choose the menu as you wish.”

"Ah..thank you very much!" Juudai smiled and followed Johan to the counter.

If only Manjoume's glaring eyes could kill, Johan was dead right now.

"…." Fubuki, Asuka, and Sho look at each other, sharing one thought. Then they set their eyes on Manjoume.

"Manjoume, are you jealous?" they asked in chorus.

Manjoume looked away, “that's impossible." he grumbled. 

The three hummed in unison. Then Sho said, "You know, I think we’ll need Johan's help. He does say that looking for people is his job and he has the connection. He can help us."

"You don't mind, right?" Fubuki asked Manjoume, raising one of his eye brows.

"Huh! Up to you." Manjoume was lost by the three pair of glares.

Juudai and Johan came back, bringing another tray of food.

"Johan, we agree to ask for your help. How much do you wish for the payment?" Fubuki asked.

"You don't need to. I'll help you as a fellow duelist." Johan answered.

Manjoume frowned and grumbled in whisper, "another excuse!"

"Johan, do you really want to go with us?" Juudai asked while chewing her burger.

“Yeah, I'll go with you. I already have some clues after all." Johan stated, looking at how cute Juudai was now. Seeing Manjoume frowned deeper, he added, "I'm interested in this case since there're many people who had been lost there in the Land of Eternal Snow."

Sho asked, "Do…do you think…how could that happen?"

Johan took his blue pocket book from his bag and explained, "Probably it's a dimensional rift. Somehow, the borderline between this dimension where we live in and the other dimension is corrupted. I don't know what dimension it is, but it looks like the time logic there is different—about a half. There's a case, just call him Mr. X. he's been lost since 12 years ago. But, 2 years ago when he's found near to the Land of Frozen Fire, he's only aged 5 years older than before, and he lost his memories.”

"So…so it means…, that if we find my brother, he'll lose his memories? Oh my God…" Sho looked shocked.

Fubuki, Juudai, and manjoume looked sad, "Ryo…will lose his memories…? All of those?" Asuka asked in trembled voice.

"…probably. But there's also a possibility that he'll be just all right. We're talking about another unknown dimension here, anything can be happened." Johan tried to cheer them up.

"…anything…including the possibility of…death." Sho whispered gloomy.

There's silence for a while. Each of them thinking about the worst possibilities. Then, suddenly Juudai's PDA rang.

"Oh, it's Daitokuji-sensei," Juudai smiled, reading his email, "He asked me where I am. He wants to meet me."

Asuka tried to sound cheerful, "he must miss you a lot. It's been 8 years since he left you in the Land of Blessing Rain."

"Hey, may I know who Daitokuji-sensei is?" Johan tried to bend the speaking topic too.

"He's my guardian since I was a child. He left me to…to look for certain thing…" Juudai answered.

"Hmm…and what was that certain thing?" Johan innocently asked further.

"That..that is…" Juudai was confused. Unlike Daitokuji, she couldn't lie in ease. She'd rather be quiet than speak the truth.

"He looks for the sorcerer stone," Asuka answered as what Daitokuji had told her, helping Juudai without realizing anything, "he left Juudai to stay with my family after that."

"How about your parents?" Johan asked.

"Um…I don't know…about them…" Juudai forcefully smiled and continued to eat.

"Uh…by the way, which route shall we take to go to that Land of Eternal snow—west route or south-west route? We can only start our investigation once we're there. Well, unless my friends give me some information before." Johan tried to bend the topic again.

"We plan to go through the west. So we're going to the Land of Rock, by train, tomorrow morning." Fubuki said.

"Ah…then I'll tell Daitokuji-sensei to meet me there." Juudai was indeed happy that she would see his guardian again. She finished her last burger.

"Now, Juudai, since you've finished. Let's go now." Manjoume stood, "and you, Johan. Leave! We'll meet at the train station tomorrow."

"Yeah. Now it's really 'see you later', Yuki-chan." Johan smiled (mockingly, in Manjoume's point of view)

Johan waved his hand and went away. The group replied by waving their hands too. Manjoume turned away and acted as if he didn't see it.

 _'Is the people that Johan know—claimed to be able to remove the bracelet—are really able to do that?'_ Juudai thought, _'ah, that's no use. Now that I think about it, the bracelet isn't a problem to me. It's removed or not, Manjoume will not be with me because…because…'_ she thought about the black mark of monster reborn on her stomach.

To be continued….


	4. Dream

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> html editing is so confusing T.T , I'll just post it as I can (it's not the look I want to achieve but oh whatever T.T *waving a white flag )

\---- 

__

10:30 Am - Juudai –  
to: Daitokuji-sensei

 

Have you find it all? 

 

-sent-  
-erased-

 

-received-  
10:32 Am - Daitokuji-sensei –  
to: Juudai

 

Not all, but quite a lot. Juudai-sama, I suggest you not to follow the trip to find Ryo Marufuji. It would be better if you go with me for the rest finding. You don’t want to drag your friends to this mess, right?

 

-erased-

 

Juudai looked secretly at her friends for a while. Asuka was reading a book on her seat. Sho was listening to music. Manjoume was looking at the scenery silently through the window. Fubuki was talking to Johan about women.

 

__

-reply-  
10:40 Am – Juudai –  
to: Daitokuji-sensei

 

I don’t want to, but I don’t want to be separated from them either. And I want to be with them the longest I can. Nee, Daitokuji-sensei, if only the word forever really exists, that must be nice, isn’t it? I wish I could be with them forever.  
Btw, have they found Ryo?

 

-sent-  
-erased-

 

-received-  
10:44 Am - Daitokuji-sensei –  
to: Juudai

 

That’s nice, but impossible. But, if you win, you’ll reach that eternity, although you wouldn’t be with them. That is, unfortunately, for sure.  
No, they haven’t found him yet. He erased the trace of summoning. We failed to know his position. I’m so sorry, Juudai-sama.

 

-erased-  
-reply-  
10:45 Am – Juudai –  
to: Daitokuji-sensei

 

*punch!  
You’ve said ‘-sama’ twice! Enough with that, haven’t I told you that I don’t like being called with that honorific? >:s  
Sensei, if they find Ryo, would you please ask them not to remove his memories? If they ask him nicely, I’m sure Ryo wouldn’t tell the others about the boundary of our world. 

 

-sent-  
-erased-

 

-received-  
10:48 Am - Daitokuji-sensei –  
to: Juudai

*that hurts nyaa~ XP  
If it’s our people who find him that might be possible. But, if it’s Guardian’s who get him, I can’t guarantee… 

 

-erased-

 

“Juudai, what’s going on?” 

 

The sudden question that came from Manjoume astonished Juudai. Furthermore, she never thought that Manjoume would look at her with that serious face, not an underestimating glare like usual. 

 

“A….um….what do you mean by ‘what’s going on’ ?” she stuttered. 

 

“It’s so unusual for you to look so serious. I never thought that you have that kind of expression besides your goofy look.” Manjoume looked at her right in the eyes. 

 

“……I….I don’t understand what you mean.” Juudai glanced to the rock mountain scenery outside the window. “Woah…what a rock!” she exclaimed.

 

Johan and Fubuki stopped their conversation and looked through the window too. “Well, looks like we’ll reach the station in no time.” Johan said, “Let’s prepare to get down.”

 

“Yea! I really want to meet Daitokuji-sensei! He must be waiting for me too!” Juudai quickly stood and run out from the compartment.

 

Seeing Juudai ran away, eager to meet her guardian, Manjoume remembered the first time when he met her. 

__  
A little brown hair girl with duel disk stood beside a tall man in a traveler’s cloak. The girl was sweet, and her smile was the most carefree in this world. When the girl looked at Manjoume, she smiled happily and said, “Hi. You bring a duel disk! Let’s duel!”  


Manjoume had never thought that it would be his very first defeat. Moreover, Juudai said that it was a fun duel. It only flared up his anger to that girl since he’s the one who’s lost. Since that, Manjoume was so obsessed to duel—to win—from Juudai. 

 

Juudai came to the Land of Blessing Rain when she was around eight, together with Daitokuji, to Asuka’s house which was an orphanage near Manjoume’s big mansion. Daitokuji, the alchemist, said that he had found Juudai stranded on the beach when she was a baby. He had raised her this long time and now he wanted to leave Juudai in that orphanage because he couldn’t bring her in his journey. He wanted Juudai to learn in this city to be a duelist like she always wanted.

 

That was so-called the truth that Manjoume knew. 

 

The train stopped. Juudai went down from the train and quickly ran to look for Daitokuji. She found him standing under the station’s big clock.

 

“Daitokuji-sensei! It’s been a long time!” Juudai said cheerfully.

 

“Yea. It takes long time to be able to gather this amount of power.” Daitokuji put his hand on his cloak. Something was hidden beneath it.

 

“…..”

 

“…I hope you’ll be alright when you take this.” Daitokuji said seriously.

 

Juudai paused for a moment and then smiled, “well…it’s a kind of ‘it can’t be helped’, right? I have to take it no matter what: the boundary has gotten weaker and weaker. We have to defeat Guardian as soon as possible.”

 

“….” Daitokuji heaved a sigh, “I’m afraid that it’s not ‘soon’. We have to go now.”

 

“Wha..?! But you haven’t found all the fragments! Besides, I want to stay with my friends a little while longer!” Juudai unconsciously spoke loudly.

 

“?! Juudai, your friends are coming!” 

 

Sho and the others walked approaching them. “Juudai, I thought you’ll be really happy to meet him. But, why do you look so depressed? Is there something wrong?” Asuka said.

 

“No. Nothing wrong. We just want to have a little talk after a long time. See you later, guys.” Juudai grabbed Daitokuji’s hand and went away without a second look to her friends.

 

“Wait! Juudai—“

 

“I bring my PDA with me, I won’t get lost! I’m not as careless as you think, Manjoume.” Juudai said, suppressing her anger. Then she turned and smiled widely, “See you later.”

 

She ran, dragging Daitokuji behind her.

 

“So he is Juudai’s guardian….then… I think it’s good for them to talk in private. They haven’t met each other for a long time.” Johan said, “while waiting for the ship to the Land of Frozen Fire, let’s start looking for the information. Maybe we can get another clue here.”

 

“I agree.” Asuka said, “furthermore, looks like they’re going to discuss something serious. Maybe it’s about Juudai’s future. I heard a bit what her last saying. Looks like Daitokuji wants Juudai to go with him.”

 

“She won’t go. I’m sure she’ll stay with us. That slacker loves duel. She always wanted to be a duelist, not an alchemist.” Manjoume tried to sound confident.

 

“I see. Looks like you’ve been together with her for a long time that you can say it.” Johan said.

 

“Yeah, it’s been a long time, unlike you. Let’s look for the information. I’ll go by my self. Bye.” Manjoume said coldly and left.

 

Johan looked at Manjoume as he mingled with the crowd. He remembered the time when he and Juudai walked to K.C burger before being disturbed by Manjoume.

_  
“Juudai, that bracelet in your hand…is it the Bracelet of Love? The bracelet that is given by the Goddess of couple? Wow, I don’t know that you’ve been married at your age.” Johan asked._

_“Well…this bracelet...is a kind of mistake.” Juudai looked at her shoes sadly._

_“Why? You don’t love the one who is tied with you?”_

_“He doesn’t want me as his lover, and I… love him as a friend.” Juudai looked away, “can we talk about something else, not in this subject?”_

_‘Juudai looked so sad at that time, and Manjoume looked worried this time,’_ Johan thought. _‘I don’t know what happen between them, but I hope Juudai will be alright. She looked a bit strange when she talked to her guardian.’_

 

Without everyone knowing, Manjoume followed Juudai and Daitokuji secretly. He knew that the last smile of Juudai was forced, and that she’s angry. She’s hiding something. So he followed them without thinking why he was worried.

 

In the crowded street, Juudai was a bout to turn into a small, quiet, alley, but Daitokuji dragged her to the shop beside it instead. “He follows us; I can sense his life energy. We should not stop to talk there. It would be too suspicious for him.” Daitokuji whispered to Juudai.

 

“’He’? Who…? But we can’t talk in this shop either.” 

 

“One of your friend. We still can talk, don’t worry.” 

 

Entering the store, Juudai let herself being dragged away to girls garment section. There, Daitokuji chose traveler’s cloak and alchemist outfit for her. “It’s for you. Try it!” the older man gave the dresses to Juudai.

 

Juudai looked at him for a moment and then spoke, “You are NOT serious, are you? I’ve told you I don’t want to leave my friend!”

 

“I’m deeply serious. Listen, I have conclude that it’s better for you to prepare to be what I want you to be start from now. Your time of being duelist has over. You cannot be selfish forever.” Daitokuji tried to convey what he wanted Juudai to consider without raising suspicion. 

 

“But…but…”

 

“You have to train yourself start from now, and it’s impossible for you to train without me. And it’s impossible for me to stop my journey. And it’s impossible for me to reach what both of us want to achieve without you.”

 

“…”

 

“Besides, we could try to find Ryo Marufuji during our journey. Now, try this cloak and dress. Let me see how you look.” Daitokuji put things he chose to Juudai’s hand. And then he pushed Juudai to the dressing room. 

 

Inside the dressing room, Juudai realized that there’s small carved wooden box among the dresses. She looked at that box sadly. “Please consider.” Daitokuji said from the outside.

 

“….” Juudai changed her previous dress into the outfit which Daitokuji had chosen for her and stepped out. “I understand,” she said in whisper, “but at least please let me be with my friend until we reached the land of Eternal Snow. There, when my friends start their investigation, we start our journey.”

 

‘What if your friends find the truth about Ryo, you, and our world there?’ Daitokuji made sentence without making a sound. This time he could not stand to emphasize his worry toward this subject.

 

“Don’t worry, everything will be alright,” Juudai smiled. “I will make sure of that.”

 

“….well I have no option if you say so.” Daitokuji smiled tiredly and placed his hand on Juudai’s waist pocket where the box was kept. “Keep it, you will need it.” He said with alerting tone.

 

Juudai became a bit pale. If Daitokuji said so, it meant that the Guardian had started to infiltrate this dimension to look for her. She didn’t know that the situation was this serious.

 

“…now you know why I want you to come with me.” Daitokuji said in carefree, for not raising suspicion. 

 

The images of her friends filled her mind. Keep that in her mind, Juudai made her decision confidently,” Everything will be alright. I’m the person who is going to be the best duelist in the world. I’m strong.”

 

“I see.” Daitokuji heaved a sigh, kept his ‘you-could-not-be-a-duelist’ words inside his mind, and gave the money to Juudai. When that girl paid the bill in the cashier, for a moment, Juudai’s black bracelet was seen by her guardian.

 

“That…How come you get it?” Daitokuji asked, pointing to the bracelet when they were outside the store. 

 

“Oh? This? I got it by mistake.” Juudai answered in gloom.

 

“Hmm. By mistake or not, the legend sure is romantic. It’s connected to each other by mythical chains.”

 

“Legend? Connected?”

 

“The legend said so. It says the blessing ties the couple to be together forever. If one of them dies, the soul will be chained to the other one until he or she dies at least.”

 

“…that sounds creepy. I don’t think the legend is right.”

 

“Well, a legend is a legend. No one can proof it for real since it’s about soul. Some people who claim to be able to see ghost said that they have seen that kind of thing—chained soul to its couple.”

 

“…I prefer the word ‘scary’ than ‘romantic’. Ah, it’s not real after all. Even if it’s real, that Goddess of couple should remove this bind as it is a mistake. Why does she give bracelets to Manjoume and me? He loves Asuka so much, how come he ended up with me?” Juudai said bitterly.

 

“….I don’t know about that. I don’t have right to answer your question.” Daitokuji heaved a sigh. “By the way, it’s really silly that we can’t do stray duel in this town. Silly human rule. What a burden.” He said, “Juudai, prepare yourself.”

 

“What? Oh…” Juudai felt the presence of spirit that was not materialized by any magical power of duelist. It uses its own essence. It meant that it was a real spirit who had wondered to this world.

 

_‘I can’t use my duel disk since it will break the law…’_ Juudai thought, _‘I have to use my current original power…But how if anyone knows I’m using it? He or she will know easily that I’m…strange. What should I do?’_ Juudai looked secretly at her surrounding. This street was not so crowded, and she couldn’t see something suspicious between the skyscrapers around her. But she could sense something odd was moving away.

 

“Would you change your mind to have a journey with me?” Daitokuji teased.

 

“No. Just wait and see, I’ll prove it to you that I can do it.”

 

Right after Juudai said that, suddenly a big man who walked beside her had blank eyes and attacked Juudai with his fist. Juudai dodged it and punched that man right in the chin. He fell down. 

 

Juudai ran away to the dark alley as many people started to attack her. _‘What a cunning enemy…controlling person who doesn’t have high magical ability like that. I have to destroy the source of this as soon as possible, unknowingly.’_ She thought, focusing her magical sense to locate the troublemaker.

 

Seeing people in huge crowd chased Juudai, even a butcher between them started to throw knives which Juudai dodged by a mere inch, Manjoume screamed, “JUUDAI WATCH OUT! HANG IN THERE I’M COMING! DAMN! What’s wrong with those people?” He ran to that alley, knocking out anyone who’s in his way. It’s easy since they didn’t have intention to attack him. They wanted to get Juudai.

 

That was unexpected; Juudai somewhat happy that Manjoume wanted to protect her. But his presence at this time was really NOT right. She ran as fast as she could. As she was fully feed, her speed was doubled than the previous day when she was hungry. 

 

Juudai finally spotted the spirit which emitted the power to control those people; it was on the unused skyscraper in front of her. 

 

Manjoume was still screaming behind her.

 

“Argh…it can’t be helped.” Juudai touched her card collections in her back pack, feeling the presence of ‘shadow spell’ trap card and took it. She planted her magic directly and threw it to the ground. _‘In this chaos, no one will see what I’ve done.’_ She thought.

 

When her chaser passed through the trap card, it’s activated. All of them were tied by countless chain, including Manjoume.

 

Juudai entered the building and quickly greeted by a bat-winged, dark brain shaped spirit. 

 

“…Brain Jacker. No wonder.” Juudai rummaged her bag.

 

The brain spirit attacked her with dark aura. Juudai blocked it using his magical power only, “Do you this only can bring me down? Don’t underestimate me just because my condition is like this.” She took out spell card ‘chain strike’, “a bit different but it has the essential part to attack.” She activated it in her hand.

 

Five chains out of nowhere pierced the brain spirit. It shrieked for a moment then vanished into smoke.

 

“JUUDAI! JUUDAI!” 

 

The girl turned around in worry. Manjoume was there out of breath (Juudai really ran fast!). “Ma..Manjoume, do you see it?”

 

“Yeah…” He walked approaching Juudai. That girl was so afraid of what might be the next.

 

“That’s really strange. Why do those people attack you all of the sudden? I have knocked all of them out by the way. Just…calm down.” Manjoume put his hand on Juudai’s shoulder.

 

“Oh? Uh…um…thanks.” Juudai smiled wryly.

 

“Now let us go to Daitokuji-sensei, he must be worried about you. I know he can’t match your speed in running, he must be left behind there out of breath.” Manjoume pushed Juudai to walk first.

 

“Yeah, he must be.” Juudai smiled widely and walked away. 

 

Manjoume followed silently behind her. He felt the remaining of trap card ‘shadow spell’ beneath his black jacket pocket. 

 

_‘None of those weak people is a duelist…it must be hers.’ he eyed Juudai silently, ‘Juudai, actually…what are you hiding?’_

 

-to be continued-


	5. The Queen

Manjoume was staring at Juudai. He tried to do it secretly, but he was never a good actor. Juudai was extremely troubled by it, but she only could stay silent.

She didn’t want Manjoume to ask her any possibly dangerous question about her well-being. She felt that Manjoume had sensed something: the spiky-haired boy had been behaving strangely toward her.

Juudai finished her meal as fast as she usually did, stood, and smied carefreely as usual and went to her room on that ship, saying to the others that she had something to do. Actually there wasn’t anything, just wanting to avoid ‘blazing gaze’ of a certain person.

But Daitokuji-sensei took that carefree ‘something to do’ as ‘has something to do with the carved box that she had just got’. So, he’s also leaving the dining room and walked beside Juudai.

When they were on the aisle where no one would listen to their conversation, the glasses man said, “ I’m glad that you’re finally willing to take them.”

“Them?”

“The fragments of soul that are in the box.”

“Oh...” Juudai looked downcast, “I’m not going to take them these days, particularly on a vast but alone-on-the-sea ship like this.”

“What? So what’s that ‘has something to do’ that you said before?”

“Um...hm....” Judai was thinking hard, “ah, I think I want to take care of my deck. I want to try to duel Johan tomorrow.” She said as if there was no worry in this world.

“Juudai-sama! What if the border’s broken before you’re ready to fight? Please be more considerate about our dimension’s destiny!”

Juudai stopped walking. Now they were at the end of the aisle. The dark night sea and sky were in front of them. There was no star at thegloomy and cloudy sky up there. A cold night wind blew, made her felt cold, outside and inside. she knew she had no right to continue living as she wish. She’s just a fragment of soul which accidentally fell into a lifeless fetus and born from a dying mother as ‘Juudai Yuki’.

“...not need to call me with ‘-sama’ honorific. I don’t deserve it.” Juudai said almost in a whisper without looking at Daitokuji. She walked near the hedge, the dock was so quiet as if darkness had enveloped the whole ship. Juudai turned and looked at the High Alchemy Counselor of Duel Monster Dimension Daitokuji in the eye, trying to smile, “when we reach the land I’ll be ready to take the rest of Hao-sama’s soul and be vanished. Just.....give me a little bit more time, please?”

“No! You’re mistaken! You won’t be vanished!” Daitokuji said to the girl whom he loved like his own daughter. He had taken care of her since she was born, and he didn’t want to see her looked sad like this now. “You’ll becomeyour true self in the end. How come you have thought that you’ll be gone?”

“...Daitokuji-sensei, I’m not Hao-sama, the Queen of Duel Monster Dimension. I’m just Juudai Yuki. The soul in me is part of her, but I’m not her.” Juudai bangs covered her eyes when she’s saying this, “when Hao-sama’s soul become one again, of course my soul will be absorbed and I’ll lose my self.” She ran away after she said that.

* * *

Long, long ago when the worlds were created by the High and Almighty One, Duel Monster Dimension was created with Hao as the goddess-like ruler and protector while Yubel as the guardian of the borderline between Duel Monster and the other dimensions. But these balance was disrupted as one time, Yubel changed her behaviour into Nightmare. She wanted the human dimension, but Hao admonished her to stay at her given role. Because of that, Nightmare attacked Hao and tried to overthrow her first. During the last fight, both of their souls were scattered across the dimensions. Now Nightmare seemed to get her souls back, so did Hao. 

With those facts playing in her mind, Juudai arrived at the front dock of the ship. For the sake of duel monster’s and human’s dimensions, she had to become one with Hao. Hao’s full power was needed to defeat Nightmare. But she still wanted to live. Unintentionally, Manjoume’s sour face played inside her mind. Manjoume walked closer to Asuka...

Juudai still wanted to be loved.

She grabbed tightly the carved box inside her coat pocked. Did she have another chance? Would she?

Suddenly the boat’s shaking hard. Screams were heard throughout the vast ship. Juudai ran to the nearest scream. A young girl was attacked by Terrorking Salmon. That girl had short brown hair just like Juudai. ‘That Salmon is targetting me.’ With that in mind, Juudai materialized her Elemental Hero Neoz without duel disk: she needed it quick. 

Neoz prevented that big fish from swallowing the fainted girl and threw it back to the raging sea. Knowing that Juudai was the one who summon Neoz, the other monsters which were swarming the ship started to get her.

Juudai opened her card album and materialized all monster cards there, ordered them to fight back. But the attacking monsters were too much. They defeated her in number.

“I need more power,” Juudai said desperately, holding the carved box, “but...but...”

Piranha Armies started to come after her. She materialized Shadow Spell and bound them all. 

Form a far, Manjoume Jun, who was looking for Juudai since the time she left from dinner room, saw this. His eyes wide with surprise. Juudai kept using spell cards and trap cards without using duel disk. Many monster attacks and she barely had time to breath. Just when Manjoume protected her from Thousand jellyfish attack Juudai realized his presence.

She really wished that the spiky hair boy didn’t say a thing, but he did, and to make it worse, it’s a question.

“How come you do that without duel disk?”

Juudai gave a wide grin to answer that and ran away.

“You! You really like running, don’t you?” Manjoume tried to chase her. But, Juudai was well-fed, so she could run as fast as wind. 

But with all the monsters attack, it’s hard for her to keep her pace. Soon, she was forced to run back to Manjoume.

“JUUDAI YOU’D BETTER ANSWER ME!” Manjoume screamed, the brunette tried best not to look at him.

Wave and wave of attacks. Juudai started to be exhausted. Many kinds of sea monsters blew hazard on the ship. Almost all the fighting back monsters were materialized by her and the magic consumed her power. The other duelists on the ship materialized only five monsters at maximum.

“Juudai? Are you alright? Judai?” Manjoume grabbed Juudai who started to feel dizzy and protected both of them with his monsters. Juudai enlarged her area of sense. There’s more and more monsters from under the sea, approaching the ship. Compared to the amount of monsters there, the boat looked like a tiny paper toy on a tank full of fish. 

“Oh my God...” she took the carved box inside her pocket. Manjoume looked at it too. Confused.

Juudai was in Manjoume’s arm, so she wasn’t afraid of anything. Smiling sadly, she realized she didn’t have choice after all. 

So she hastily kissed the cheek of the boy whom she loved, and opened the seal on the box. Manjoume was too shock to say a word. Tens of blinding lights came out of the box, entered Juudai in an instant. He couldn’t see Juudai because of the bright light that was soon emitted from her body. 

The ship and the surrounding were covered in big bright light. When finally the light was gone, all monsters were gone, the duelist monsters were also back to the cards. Manjoume could see Juudai in his arms again. He really wanted an explanation, but the brunette was unconscious so he couldn’t ask a thing.

Seeing the usually carefree and cheerful and hiperactive girl lying still like that worried him. So much.

* * *

Manjoume looked at the sleeping form of Juudai in front of him. Now finally he could be alone with the girl in her room. Thousands of questions were asked to him by their friends and that annoying (for Manjoume) Johan. Manjoume answered all of them by silence. He had decided that he shouldn’t say anything about Juudai since the girl seemed hiding some secrets that she couldn’t tell anyone. It’ll be her decision to tell the others or not.

‘But I, as her husband,’ Manjoume blushed by he-didn’t-know-why reason, thought, ‘ I have right to know as it concerns her safety. Juudai, wake up quickly. I have many things I have to ask you!”

The door was opened, and Daitokuji stepped in. Manjoume stared at him, “look like you know something, don’t you?”

“I am,” Daitokuji said in a cold manner as he knew Manjoume had seen something around his and Juudai’s secret, “but it’s none of your business. Now, Manjoume-kun, would you please get out of this room? I need to check her up.”

Manjoume was pissed of, but he still respect the adult in fron of him. “I can’t. As you have known,” he raised the bracelet, “I’m bound to her.”

“That’s surely a false bond.” Daitokuji replied with might, unlike his usual way of speech, “I can’t tell you the reason, but the one behind you certainly doesn’t belong to you.”

_‘Yes, she belong to our dimension. She’s our queen, our sole ruler and protector.’_ Daitokuji thought.

“I hate when people hide things that I have right to know.” Manjoume said, clipping his duel disk on his left arm. 

“He’s right. It’s none of your business.”

Manjoume astonished, and turned. Juudai had woken up, and she spoke with high and almighty tone. She looked at him with disrespectful eyes. Those eyes glittered in gold. Eyes that showed how powerful she was. Although she looked exactly like Juudai, Manjoume knew she wasn’t. 

“Who are you?” Manjoume asked bravely.

The girl in front of him smiled haughtily, “you don’t have any slightest right to know. Now you’d better be silent or I should erase your memory.”

“How if we decide it by duel then?” Manjoume said, “if you win, you’ll erase my memory. If I win, give back Juudai to me and explain everything!”

Hao smiled wickedly, “Fine, there’s no way that your wish can be fulfilled though. You can’t win against me.” She put her duel disk on her left hand.

“DUEL!”

 

End of chapter V


	6. Chasing after the Shadow

“It’s impossible!” the brown hair girl hissed. She couldn’t move her hand to summon monster that would make Manjoume’s life point zero. There’s no card on the field right now thanks to her Heavy Storm and Dark Hole. _‘Why can’t I...?’_

She looked at the black hair boy in front of her. He had been through a lot of pain. During the duel, Hao had tortured him with the real pain in every attacks. She did that so that Manjoume would give up.

But he didn’t, although blood dripping from his mouth and nose, body filled with bruises and cuts, the boy stood still. The going-to-be last blow should mean the death to him.

Hao forced herself to summon the monster in her hand on the field. Her heart suddenly filled with pain she couldn’t comprehend. Tears fell down from her eyes. 

“Why? Why it won’t stop? What’s this?” she touched the tears on her cheek.

Manjoume smiled sadly, “you are still there, aren’t you, Juudai?” He raised the closed cards in his hand, “it’s ok, I’m going to be alright, trust me! Don’t cry, ok?” he looked at the crying golden eyes. For a moment he knew that those eyes had become brown, Juudai’s eyes colour. It’s just for a second, but it gave him hope.

He realized it now, bitterly, what he had felt for Juudai this long time.

That girl always smile anytime anywhere anymoment, particularly in a duel. At first he thought that he hated those attitude that completely the opposite of his, but no. He hated it because he wanted Juudai to specially smile for him; a smile that was only for him, not to anyone else. He wanted that sweet smile to just for him.

He realized it now that when tears had replaced it.

He felt really hurt each time Juudai had defeated him in a duel. He had hated her a lot because of that and declared her as his rival. But he knew now why the lost had felt really hurt, unlike when he was defeated by the few others who had defeated him.

He didn’t want to look pitiful in front of the one he adored. Hatred had clouded his feeling of love and now he had to pay for it. 

He would try to redeem it, he hadn’t given up.

“Attack!” The brunette forced her mouth to utter that word.

“I activate Battle Vader’s effect from my hand! When a monster attack, it ends the battle phase immediately!”

The brunette gritted her teeth,”I place one card face down and I end my turn.” 

“Draw!” Manjoume looked at the card that he had just drawn: Monster Reborn. The other cards in his hand were Light and Darkness Dragon, Totem Dragon, and Tribute to the Doomed. Manjoume smirked.

“I activate Tribute to the Doomed from my hand and discard one card as the cost.” Manjoume discarded Totem Dragon. The only monster on the field was immediately destroyed. “Then, I activate from my hand Monster Reborn. I call back Totem Dragon from the graveyard.” A cute dragon appeared on the field.

“It’s just a small monster. What are you so happy for?” The girl’s life points was still 2000

Manjoume smiled, “if you were Juudai, I believe you’ll activate whatever reverse card you have there now.”

The brunette just stayed silent.

“You haven’t known me, have you?” Manjoume smiled mockingly, “using Totem Dragon as 2 tribute, I summon Light and Darkness Dragon!”

The half black and white dragon appeared on the field. This dragon cannot be special summoned, and it needs 2 tribute to be normal summoned. That difficultiness is as the balance for his effect which can negate all card effects activation on the field. The brown hair girl knew that her face-down Mirror Force was useless now. In the end, her 2000 lp depleted to zero.

“I win.” Manjoume stared down at her, “now you tell me the truth!” all of them! Give me back Juudai! Who are you?”

The girl closed her eyes and heaved a sigh. She’d like to erase his memory, but she had promised not to if he won. If only not for a matter of life point she wouldn’t have lost. Never.

“Fine. You cannot change anything just by knowing that anyway.” The girl saluted in a queen-like manner, “I am Hao, the queen of Duel Monster. And the one there is the High Alchemy Counselor, Daitokuji.”

“Where-is-Juudai!?”

“She’s here,” Hao placed her hand on her chest, “I don’t know why I can’t access her memory. I bet she hasn’t merged with me completely for now.”

“Merged? What do you mean by that?” Manjoume didn’t like what he had just heard.

“During the last battle with Nightmare my soul was scattered and fallen into the Human’s world,” Hao walked to Daitokuji who gave a deep salute to her, “Yuki Juudai was one of my scattered soul that fell to an unborn child. She’s born although she hadn’t meant to be born.”

“I don’t care a bit about that! Now give back my Juudai!”

Hao looked at him silently and said, “Nightmare had regain her scattered soul and power. I have to go back and fight. With Juudai’s soul hasn’t merged with me it would be difficult. So, Manjoume Jun, I order you to ask Juudai Yuki to give herself to me. It looks like she will obey it since you’re precious to her. I can feel it.”

Manjoume was quiet for a moment, and then asked, “this fight with what you called Nightmare. Why does it happen?”

Hao eyed him, “do you wish to stop the fight so that I will give Juudai back to you?”

“I will do whatever I must...to save her.” After saying that Manjoume was down to his knees. He had been bleeding a lot.

“She’s just a fragment of soul.”

“I’ve told you before I DON’T CARE A BIT ABOUT THAT! Juudai is Juudai and....she belongs to me!”

“Hm...” Hao turned and waved her hand in the air. A glowing diagram filled with symbols appeared on the wall in front of her. “Interesting thought...indeed...but we don’t have much time.”

Manjoume staggered, “but you have promised to to tell all to me and give back Juudai!”

“...you’re right. I can’t give Juudai, so at least I have to explain. Go to the land of Eternal Snow and wait for my magician there. He will explain everything.” Hao walked to the diagram with Daitokuji following beside her. The tall man turned and talked to Manjoume with a sad smile, “ thank you for caring for Juudai.”

“Sayonara, Manjoume Jun.” With that final words from Hao they jumped, both of them vanished along with the glowing red diagram.

The room was back to darkness. Manjoume crept as he was unable to stand now. He touched the wall where the hectagram was. His bracelet glowed dim.

“Wait for me, Juudai,” he touched the bracelet with his other hand,”I’ll come to you...and then we will go home together. I promise.”


	7. Bonds

Manjoume didn’t say a thing, nor explained anything to his friends. The others were so puzzled but they couldn’t do anything about it. The only thing that they could do was trying to save the spiky hair boy’s life.

When they found him crept from Juudai’s room, dying of loss blood, Manjoume looked so sad and wounded that no one was able to say any comforting words. They just could guess that something terrible had happened entangling Juudai and Daitokuji; both of them were gone mysteriously, just like those terrible monsters which had attacked the whole ship.

When Manjoume was strong enough to talk, he only said that they should go to the Land of Eternal Snow. No one argued. No one asked the reason. From the eyes of th black hair boy they knew that the answers they were looking for were all there.

So there they were, on the only harbor of the frozen-since-long-ago country, shivering from top to toe because they never thought to go to such a country. The first thing they bought were thick wooly coats. 

When they were busy choosing for the thickest coats, a boy with back-length white hair came to them. He was wearing magician hat and a long white cloth adorned with big sign of monster reborn. He seemed not to be bothered by the extremely cold weather. 

“Good evening, gentlement.” That white magician spoke softly to Manjoume. The black hair boy stared at him without uttering any word. “I believe you are Manjoume Jun. My name is Bakura Ryou. Can I have a moment to talk with you, please?”

“You are..the magician that Hao sent, aren’t you?” Manjoume grabbed Bakura’s cloth. “Tell me how I can go to Duel Monster dimension!”

“Go? But the Queen didn’t ask me to help you to go there, she--” 

“I WANT TO GO THERE AND SAVE JUDAI!”

Johan, Asuka, Sho, and Fubuki stopped moving in an instant, they gathered near Manjoume and Bakura. They looked confused but determined to get the truth. 

Bakura looked at them coldly, “The Queen only asked me to answer your question. That’s all. I can’t grant you another wish.”

“Calm down, Manjoume.” Johan stepped forward. Manjoume heaved a long sigh, then asked calmly,“White Magician. How is Juudai?”

“Her soul is side by side with our Queen’s soul.”

The others looked worried. Manjume sighed, then continued, surprisingly cold,”What is Nightmare?”

Bakura looked at him coldly, “Long long ago, when God created our Duel Monster world, He created Hao as the soul ruler and protector while Yubel as the guardian of the dimension’s borderline. Yubel then corrupted as she was long close to the the tainted black human world. She was known as Nightmare since that day.”

The group felt awkward; Ryou looked at them sadly as if a little bit blaming them.

He then continued, “Yubel was supposed to guard our Queen, but she turned into a Nightmare that haunts her. She opposed her, asking for the throne. If only she weren’t corrupted, our Queen would give it to her. But she is a Nightmare now. For sure after conquering our world she will set eyes on your world. That’s why Hao-sama cannot give up this fight. 

You shouldn’t bother Hao-sama with your business about Yuki Juudai. This girl...is just a part of Hao-sama’s soul—the power our queen needed to win this fight. Consider that her lost will save both worlds. I really feel sorry for you, but that can’t be helped. Let her go.”

There was a long silence. Sho and the others started to grasp what had happened. Asuka was crying, and the others had emptiness reflected in their eyes. 

Then Manjoume knelt, astonishing everyone.

“It is not a question, but it is a request. If you have someone dear to you I believe you would understand. I want to take Juudai home, safe and sound.” He said with determination raging in his eyes. “Please tell me how to go to your dimension. Please let me help to fight this Nightmare.”

Bakura was astonished with how big the spiky hair boy’s determination was. Moreover, Sho, Asuka, Fubuki, and Johan were kneeling too. Their eyes showed that they wished to fight too.

“Why...? How could you....” Bakura stuttered,”Can’t you imagine how powerful Nightmare is? She was created to be as strong as our Queen. Don’t you know how strong she was? The so-many monsters that had attacked your ship that night were all afraid and ran away just because of her presence. She could destroy the whole soul of a monster just by a sigh. You have no chance to win this fight. Nothing at all. If you say that ‘you won’t know until you try’ it is obviously fool as you shouldn’t go to war without suffice preparation.”

“Juudai...I can’t let her face this all alone,” Manjoume said surprisingly soft. “It wasn’t said before, but I have a promise that I would accompany her through difficulties and suffering until the Death comes to us.” He raised his black bracelet, “this is my bond with her.”

He acknowledged it. He would not deny it anymore. The bracelet glowed as if answering his determination.

Ryou looked at the bracelet on Manjoume’s hand. “The Bracelet of Love. If it’s real, then maybe that’s the thing that prevent that girl’s soul to become one with the queen." 

Suddenly Bakura hit that bracelet with his stuff. The black bracelet gave an electric shock; it knew that Bakura had aimed to destroy it.

“You! What have you intended to do?” Manjoume took out his deck and put it on his duel disk.

“It’s indeed real.” Bakura touched his right hand that now felt a little bit numb. “I’m really curious about that thing. Can I have it?” 

Suddenly many misty ghosts appeared from the ground. One of it attacked Manjoume with her deathly glare. Manjoume blocked it with summoning Light and Darkness Dragon.

Albeit the cold air, Manjoume, Fubuki, Asuka, Sho, and Johan started they fight with Bakura. The magician used his magic while Manjoume and friends used their monster, spell, and trap cards. The store was destroyed in no time. The snowy country’s harbor now heated by their fight.

* * *

For seven days there was a big ruckus.

At first day the government there believed that it’s only a street fight between a magician and a group of disobedient duelist who dueled without life-point rule. 

But after the second-day, they started to help that group of duelist as finally they knew that the fight had connection with Duel Monster world and Earth. All thanks to Johan who had cool head and explained the situation with the governor, Aster Phoenix.

Johan point was, if they could prove to that magician that they were willing to help the DM world by their strength, both world could be saved. The fight with Nightmare was real. The prove was the sudden lost of people around the world—as there was something wrong with the border between the two dimensions. Human being could not just ignore it; this was about their world too. They should help to fight this disruption.

Now at the seventh-day, Bakura had summoned about 1034 monsters. Daitokuji as the great alchemist from Duel Monster world had come to help him destroy the Bracelet of Love. On the other hand, the duelists who were now at the cold battlefield had come from all over the world. They all came to help Johan and friends to prove to the other side that human world was willing to help fight the Nightmare. Why did they come?

Because there was a bond between duelist and monster.

No one knew when it was started, but everyone knew that duelist from the Earth and monster from Duel Monster world had helped each other in fight since long time ago. The duelist asked the monster’s power in fight, and the monster had powered-up everytime they fight alongside a duelist. 

The bond between a trusted friend who help each other, who fight together to reach a better-self. That’s it. That made Johan, his Ancient Dragon and Jewel-family monster were undefeated up until now the seventh-day. So does with Sho and his machine allies, Asuka with her dancer friends, and Fubuki with his fellows.

And Manjoume, the power of that bond kept he and his dragon companions stood strong there on the battlefield dueling Bakura and Daitokuji face to face without taking any rest. What had made him stronger than the other was, he had the power of love as his infinite source of energy.

A monster who never fought together with human was never as strong as the one who did. At the thirtieth-day, all the monsters who were summoned by Bakura stopped fighting. They acknowledged that human was indeed wish to help them. Now they were waiting for Bakura to open the portal once again. But, the white haired magician and Daitokuji, although they were greatly exhausted, were stubbornly fighting Manjoume. 

“Why don’t you two just stop this useless fight? We’d better not waste our time like this. Why don’t we discuss some strategies to fight Nightmare?” Manjoume said while riding on his Light and Darkness Dragon. They were dueling on the air. 

“Why can’t you understand? Nightmare is absolutely powerful! If only you can see how she fought our queen back then! You can’t imagine how dreadful each of their attacks that made their souls scattered!” Bakura who was flying mid air flapped his half angel-half demon wings. A mix of light and dark wind attacked Manjoume. 

The black hair boy activated his trap card, “Mirror Force!”

A blast of light trapped Bakura’s attack and reflected it back at the white magician. The magician was too tired and he’d lost his speed. The blast of dark and light wind hit him and he fell down. But before he hit the ground Daitokuji caught him with his Clay Golem. He was exhausted too. 

Manjoume stop attacking. He never harm the two Queen’s servants except when he needed to fight back. The alchemist knew that they could never win. Manjoume was being backed up by the power of the goddess of love through the black bracelet.

Daitokuji jumped to his Golem hands and said to the white hair boy, “Ryou, perhaps we should listen to him, to duelist, to humanity. They really wish to help us.”

“Do you want them to just throw away their lives?” the magician was at the verge of crying. “They’re human—unlike you and me and the other Duel Monster dwellers. They can never be reborn once they are dead! I’m stopping them wasting their precious lives! You’ve said you agree to help me! Our Queen needs her full power to be able to face Nightmare! Do you—“

“Ryou!” suddenly an identical white magician appeared from the glowing red hexagram. His face was just like Ryou, but he had some evil aura around him. “I’m finished watching your silly act, Ryou! Stop being so stubborn! Daitokuji’s right.”

The newly-came magician looked at Manjoume, “Kid, I’ll open the gate for all of you. You can join the battle—being death or alive is your whole own business. Lucky for you Hao-sama has signalled OK –you-may - help. Be thankful and do you best not to die!” He raised his staff and the glowing red hexagram became wider and wider. 

“Yami Bakura, stop! What are you trying to do? Are you sure that Hao-sama wish for it?” Ryou raised his staff, trying to stop the hexagram being bigger. But, Daitokuji grabbed that thing away from him and didn’t let him take it back.

“I think I’ll trust that they are going to be alright. You should trust them too.” The tall man said. “Besides, the power that is transmitted through the bracelet of love...I wonder if we can use that too. If we can use it for our force, we could win this fight although our Queen didn’t have her full power. Perhaps we can also avoid catastrophic damage like our previous battle with Nightmare.”

“Can we?” Ryou still remembered clearly the great damage at the previous battle. Queen Hao’s soul was scattered through many dimensions. Half of the planet were burnt in black-hellish flame. For hundred years many monsters must wait for their reborn as the Queen who could spell that was gone and it needed time to save her miserable soul across dimension. It was a truly hard task for he and his fellow magicians and alchemists. 

“Don’t be a pessimist, Ryou,” Yami spoke to him. “Look at their eyes, I don’t think they will let themselves die that easily. They’re not a weakling like you.” He smirked.

“I’m not weak!” 

“Really? Show me that by believing in them, then!” Yami stopped the growth of the red portal he made. The width now had strecthed across the sea in 2 kilometers diameter.

“I WELCOME ALL OF YOU TO OUR WORLD. HA HA HA HA HA..” He laughed as he watched the duelist from all over the world flew through it by the helps of their monster friends.

**Author's Note:**

> Duel in this Alternate Universe is treated as one way of fighting. Duelist or Dueler uses Cards and Duel disk as Magician uses Wand. 
> 
> Legal Duel, often referred to as Duel, is an acceptable duel in the most of the country. This duel fight over an imaginary life points (it could be 8000, 4000, etc depends on duel rules of the country). Damages in this duel aren't real, just the pain.
> 
> Stray duel is a duel which involved two or more Duelists with their life at stake (the damages to their bodies are real). Some cards are pretty useless to be used in this no-rule duel (such as pot of greed, player have no turn-shift and may draw as many cards as possible as there's no rule). Trap card can be used like a spell card (with higher speed than no-icon spell card), high level monster can be summoned without tribute (but still it needs a large amount of power). 
> 
> Duelist=someone who do legal duel
> 
> Dueler=someone who do stray duel


End file.
